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Self release [Release date: 06.09.24]
Lazarus Heights new ‘Papillon’ album is a melodic, song driven 12 track musical journey. It explores moments of bluster and bombast, but is tempered by intimate confessionals kindled by intricate band interplay.
It’s a poised, well crafted album with successful ambitions of grandeur and is everything you want from a melodic rock band with a charismatic front man.
Dick Grisdale’s baritone inflected phrasing evokes vocalists like Jim Morrison, Nick Cave, Scott Walker, David Bowie and the lesser known, but equally good Jack Leven.
‘Papillon’ is shot through with Grisdale’s inherent artistry and emotional intensity, matched by a wide array of shimmering guitar tones which serve to mirror lyrical meaning.
The album is built on the essential relationship between his voice and his poetic lyrics. His versatile timbre also allows him to move effortlessly from rich, treacle note introspection, to enveloping musical highs which illuminate his song craft.
But while he is self evidently the focal point of the band, Lazarus Heights is very much the sum of its parts.
Drummer Jeff Gautier for example, is a high energy presence, but more importantly a subtle “pocket” drummer who always plays the song.
The band’s sculpted sonic landscapes and atmospheric ambient textures give the Eastern flavoured opening title track a familiar Zeppelin feel.
The song moves from a muscular power chord intro to a melodic groove, while Paul Mouradian’s ethereal synth break adds a cinematic dimension, before a warm choral outro.
By contrast, ‘Fall For You’ is almost 80’s style jangly pop with a synth riff, over which Grisdale delivers a breathy, portentous opening line:
“There’s something going down, there’s trouble in this town.”
A mid tempo-poppy feel then builds to a stop-time hook;
“Won’t fall for you again, won’t fall for you again, when the whole bloody world come tumbling down.”
Additional subtle bv’s are bathed in echo reverb and are topped by a repeated keyboard riff. Perfect!
The atmospheric ‘Murder Blue’ opens as a sumptuous funky groove with Simon Pearson’s bass accents, but it’s actually a track full of restraint, about “a woman scorned”, on which Grisdale gives reign to his noirish lyrics.
Every pause and breath invites additional focus on the lyrics, before a fleetingly picked guitar line and back into the groove. Simply marvellous!
The band rock hard too, on the opening crescendo and angular riff of the heavier ‘Dry Martini’. Gautier’s relentless drive gives the song its braggadocio and underpins Grisdale’s noir cinematic lyrics and a booming chorus, topped by a gnawing wah-wah inflected guitar break:
“Love lies in a dry Martini, love lies, love lies drowning.”
‘Papillon’ is a superbly produced and well thought out album which flows seamlessly and constantly draws the listener into the next track, much like chapters in a great book.
In the above context, the sing-along ‘Dive’ feels like a natural destination point.
Opening with a Hawaiian sounding and acoustic guitar, Grisdale launches into the kind of expansive chorus that would sound good on the big screen.
‘Waterfall’ is a muscular locked-in hypnotic groove punctuated by a repeated power chord and jangling guitar laden hook. It explodes into a Manfred Mann style synth break, as the band go round again, before a subtle keyboard riff takes us into the fade.
Then, when you think they have revealed the full extent of their oeuvre, Grisdale unexpectedly opts for an unflinching rendition of Alex Harvey’s version of Jacques Brel’s ‘Next’.
And if he doesn’t quite have the same animated presence of Alex, he positively revels in the staccato laden tango with risqué lyrics, even slipping into French on the closing line.
‘The Joker’ opens with an eerie psychedelic drone, pounding drums and another great opening line:
“Look at you asleep like a lizard, a fortune gift wrapped in your skin, The perfect stranger in a curtained room, with a view looks like you.”
It features the album’s biggest soundscape which perfectly evokes Grisdale’s surreal lyrics.
And then deep in the album, Grisdale switches to electric-acoustic and double tracks his own earthy vocals to explore new emotional depth on a crystalline ballad ‘The Living Room’, which has a rare transcendent quality.
It showcases his ability to bring a lyric to life by effortlessly holding a note, extending a vowel, and diving deep into his own sensory imagery, while Mouradian adds subtle piano parts;
“A screaming car, look to the window with a sense of alarm, but you know there’s nothing more than this. Doing time inside the living room, you say it’s good for your health, Days turn to years inside the living room, wouldn’t be seen dead anywhere else.”
Where to go after such a delight? They surprise us by mining a Kashmir era, Zeppelin style wall of sound so beloved by Bonamassa. The resulting Eastern vibe has lashing of percussion, a horn break and more noir lyrics.
“There is beauty in the ugly and treasure in the dirt, the perfect imperfections and pleasure in the hurt.”
The choice of Alain Bashung’s ‘Fantaisie Militaire’ as the second cover on the album is apt. Aside from the original song being a similar Anglo-French collaboration, it fits the album perfectly.
Grisdale switches to French to emote lyrics about emotional detachment, on a pulsating groove with a subtle keyboard drone and a sudden dynamic tension, which the band fills with an avalanche of sound.
It finishes as a balls out rocker with a piercing whammy bar inflected shred and a huge drum sound.
And so to the closing self titled masterpiece which gives the band its name. ‘Lazarus Heights’ is a slow building, fist pumping, anthemic rocker with another monumental drum sound.
It opens with a combination of acoustic and tremolo guitar, and has a memorable opening verse:
“It’s a sunny day at Lords, we got their rain, don’t worry the tobacco company’s gonna pay.
A new man at number 10, so we can all breathe again, for a little while, till the bells of London ring.”
An emotionally charged chorus lodges itself in your brain and never leaves.
Grisdale adds a resolving David Gilmour style guitar solo to bring an eloquent album to a climatic conclusion, save for a whistled coda and a final drone which quietly falls to the ground like a feather.
Simply magnificent *****
Review Pete Feenstra
Gig review (September 2024)
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